Major crisis (but don't panic)

Martyn has used up ALL of our emergency toilet roll blowing his nose from his cold. We better not have any other need for it! We've nicked another one from our hostal - don't tell!

Its no good,I am a desert chick I am. The sun, the sand, the space. Don't get me wrong I loved southern Chile as well - green and lush and warm with beautiful mountains but up here is just lovely. I had to write down some notes on things I think I forgot to blog about so I didn't forget them:

We saw rocks made of salt that was polished clear like glass and also heard rocks. Heard rocks? Yup, completely wicked. These rocks are made of salt and in the heat of the sun the expand and then contract when it cools (obviously) anyway, as this happens they make loud cracking noises just like corrugated iron. Its a little disconcerting when you're stood underneath them.

And the STARS.
Its 32oC at 6pm. Lovely.
Oh and I now know the difference between vicuna, alpaca, guanaco and llama. They are the four types of american camelid although none of them have humps! Vicuna and Guanaco are wild whilst Llama and alpaca are domesticated. An alpaca is shorter and furrier than a llama and a guanaco is bigger than a vicuna and has a black face. I think vicuna are the prettiest ones.

Will be sad to leave - which we are about to do in 2 hours. Its time for Easter Island. We'll let you know if we find any eggs.
So no blog yesterday as we kind of had a do nothing day. All we did was catch a bus to Calama. Actually thats not true we also went to the archaeological museum which was very interesting but no mummies as the indigenous people asked them to be removed. Lots of axe heads and old bits of cloth though.

Hang on, just looked back at the photos of the south and now I don't know which I prefer - oooohhh big dilemma. Its all stunning. Snowy mountains or cactus mountains........its no good, thats too big a decision to make!
Sort of a do nothing day today and a bit of yesterday. I have actually been sunbathing for a bit in the nice secluded courtyard of our hostal. We tried to make our walking tour of Calama last 2 hours but after an hour we gave up. Lonely Planet actually has a statue of a coal miner with a strategically located pneumatic drill listed as a site to see so of course we went and found it. The church is also interesting. It has a roof and tower made entirely of copper which is an interesting thought considering the eletrical storms they have up here before the rains come. Also it wins the prize for the soonest ever playing of Christmas carols. Its 9th January and when the bells ring they play The First Nowell. Only 350 days to go in case you were counting....

Scarily Martyn is almost half way through a book and I have managed to do two crosswords in my book without looking up any answers! Its doing well this crossword book - I got it for Japan!

Anyway flight back to Santiago tonight and then hopefully Easter Island tomorrow although apparently they always over book the Easter Island flights so we'll see. Not that I'm neurotic about flights or anything!

ooh goody, Martyn has successfully been and purchased choc ice, I'm off.